The Wooley Story Hour with 5 yr olds......

This is the first time I have had a group of children who are all five years old! After last week I quickly realized that I can not do all of the projects with them that I do in my 5-7 yr old class. It was interesting to conclude that when a few five year olds are mixed into a group who are up to seven years old, their behavior rises to the level of the older children in class; they take their cue from them. On the other hand, when put together with others of the same age, they have no role models; no one to emulate. Result? A VERY different atmosphere in the class room!
As a result of learning this, I shifted gears and have begun bringing their project levels down a notch or two. Additionally, the 5 yr old class is only one hour long which also is a limiter on the projects we can complete.

Now that I have experienced this learning curve, I am back on track and now know how to proceed with this group! We began with a lovely story book written by Elsa Maartman Beskow called Pelle's New Suit  which tells the story of a little boy, his lamb and how he  uses his lamb to get himself a new suit. After the story I did a brief drop spindle demonstration which always amazes.

The project of the day was for the children to do some wet felting in a baggie. This is an easy project for them to find success with which they all did! I had prepared the usual three layers of fibers in a baggie ahead of classtime and added a bit of soapy warm water to each. I had them work them until they were firm enough to remove from the bag and finish up by rolling them in bumpy shelf gripper.

Next week? Kool - Aid Dyeing. I will have them paint yarns which they will then use in a circle weaving project.